Tsolov takes commanding win in F2 Austria Feature Race

Credit: Formula 2

Nikola Tsolov took his fourth Formula 2 win of the season in the Feature Race at Austria, beating out championship leader Gabriele Minì and Oliver Goethe. How it happened

Campos Racing's Noel León led the field from pole position, as second-placed Alex Dunne slipped down, ceding his place to Nikola Tsolov at the start.

But further down the field, the chaos had already started as two of yesterday's podium sitters, Sebastian Montoya and Rafael Villagómez, came together at Turn 3. Joshua Dürksen had gone across the track and forced Villagómez into Montoya, sending the pair off the track and into the gravel, ending their day before it could fully begin.

Tsolov was in the lead of the race by the time the Safety Car came out, and he led the field to green ahead of León and Minì, and continued leading his teammate as the race wore on. Dunne, sitting in fourth, chose to pit on Lap 8 and came back out in 17th place.

León and Tsolov pit on the following lap, Minì taking the lead of the race ahead of his MP Motorsport teammate Goethe. Tsolov had some trouble in the pit stop but was able to still come out ahead of León and worked to retain the net lead from down outside the top 10.

When Minì came into the pits a few laps later, the undercut was effective enough to bring out him of pit lane ahead of Tsolov, but on warmer tyres Tsolov was able to regain his lead, Dunne and Minì now ahead of León. But on Lap 13 at Turn 3, Tsolov came under attack, first from Dunne who was able to get past and take the net lead and ninth place on track and then from Minì. Tsolov was able to fight off the championship leader and maintained what was a net second place in the race.

Further down the field, Rafael Câmara was making progress, sitting in 12th place right behind the drivers that would cycle up to the podium places after pitstops were all said and down.

Halfway through the race, Goethe was leading Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Laurens Van Hoepen, the top eight having started on the harder compound of tyre and still waiting to make their mandatory pitstop. Meanwhile, Tsolov wasn't content to sit and wait behind Dunne and got back past him again for eighth on Lap 25. Dunne seemed to have lost the prime window of tyre performance as Minì crept up behind him.

On Lap 27, the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) came out for Mari Boya, who pulled off to the side of track with a mechanical issue, the back of his PREMA Racing car on fire. The top five drivers on track still had yet to pit, but with no pitstops allowed under a VSC, they were unable to gain an advantage from the yellow period.

The VSC ended a lap later after Boya's car had been recovered. Minì was able to get sixth place from Dunne as Van Hoepen made his pitstop, just the top four left still to pit with just over 10 laps to go in the race. After leading the race for almost half the race, Goethe came in at the start of Lap 30, coming back out in 10th place.

Inthraphuvasak and Nico Varrone were the final two drivers to pit, finally making their stops on Lap 31 and allowing Tsolov to slot into the lead of the race, with Minì, Dunne and Câmara behind. Dunne and Câmara battled for third, a tussle that resulted in Câmara going off the track as Dunne refused to cede him space. But soon Dunne wasn't just defending from Câmara but also Dürksen and Goethe, and on Lap 36 Câmara was able to grab third place.

But it was Goethe who was able to jump up and get past the pair of them, taking third place with three laps to go behind his teammate Minì. But out in front, it was an unstoppable Tsolov who came home on Lap 40 to win the race by 3.9 seconds.

Minì came home in second and Goethe secured third place. Câmara finished fourth ahead of Inthraphuvasak, Martinius Stenshorne, and Dunne, who would be investigated after the race for his defensive driving against Câmara.

Polesitter León finished in a disappointing eighth while Van Hoepen and Dürksen took the final points of the day.

Full results can be found here.